Yes! I live in the place that has been crowned the most locked down city in the world over the past two years: Melbourne, Australia!

It’s been a journey, to put it mildly. We’ve endured six seperate lockdowns, each one more miserable than the last.

Right from the start, our state government did this…

The Emperor: Imposed strict rules

It was actually amazing how compliant everyone was!

We started off like this…

Page of Wands: Developing new skills

Baking sourdough, taking up crochet, improving our ability to work and play online.

We made lots of this…

Page of Swords + Temperance: Plans to improve our work-life balance

Some did this…

Knight of Wands + The Empress: Moved to the country

Many felt this…

Judgement: A call to serve others

People set up Facebook groups to support their community, gave money to charity, reached out to neighbours.

Some made the experience harder…

Knight of Swords: Sections of the media

With their sniping on the sidelines and their personal political agendas.

But others made it easier to do this…

The Star: Hold onto hope

Medical scientists and healthcare workers, those who went above and beyond to help through this crisis, friends on WhatsApp groups.

That was 2020.

2021 has been much worse.

There was a lot more of this between political leaders and from media commentators…

Five of Wands + Ace of Wands: Fighting for ideological supremacy

Which…

Judgement Reversed: Shattered our sense of community

And was a factor in increased…

The Tower: Mental breakdowns

And for some led to this…

The Star Reversed: Despair

People were either…

Five of Pentacles: Feeling poor

Due to businesses being unable to trade and government subsidies being withdrawn.

Or this…

Ten of Swords: Mentally drained

From being asked to work under challenging conditions.

I’ve worked six days a week for the last two years, as well as writing, and I’m in the latter category.

Up until September I felt I was doing this…

Two of Pentacles: Juggling my responsibilities nicely

But then I finished The Empress and suddenly barely had the energy to publish it, let alone write any more.

My brain just stopped working…

Ace of Swords Reversed: Unable to think clearly

And it’s only just coming back online now.

The inability to think on a deep level is definitely a symptom of this…

Nine of Swords: The ongoing stress of managing life in lockdown.

Which is why I won’t be publishing the next chapter in my Tarot series tomorrow.

I’m not sure when I’ll finish it. Maybe by the end of January, maybe not till next March.

Which is kind of funny, considering the next chapter is this…

The Emperor: Meeting deadlines

Guess this is a card I need to work on in my own life, lol!

More than anything in Melbourne, we have felt this, especially during the past six months…

Three of Swords: Brokenhearted

From being unable to spend time with friends and family – again!

From missing much-needed holidays we were looking forward to – again!

From being cooped up at home alone – again!

My Christmas wish for this year is that you get to do this…

Four of Wands + Ten of Cups: Spend the holiday season with family

Thinking of you all!